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India allows 'green' firecrackers for Diwali

India's top court has allowed limited use of "safe and green" firecrackers during Diwali festivities next month. The ruling is a setback for activists who wanted a complete ban on fireworks to curb soaring pollution.

The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday allowed the use of reduced-smoke fireworks during Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, next month.

Activists had petitioned the top court for a complete ban on fireworks as pollution levels rise in the capital and are once again hovering in dangerous territory.

Each year, Diwali festivities leave the capital, New Delhi, and its satellite cities engulfed by a toxic cloud of smoke and hazardous levels of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) — small particles that pose the greatest threat to lungs.

A two-judge bench said firecrackers would be permitted during Diwali, Christmas and New Year, with conditions attached.

Diwali: Smog chokes New Delhi despite firework ban

Diwali: The festival of light

Diwali, a festival commemorating the triumph of light over darkness, is observed by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains across South Asia. The festival is often celebrated with fireworks, the lighting of candles and cleaning one's home. But this year was to be different: Authorities in New Delhi wanted to assess how fireworks affected toxic levels of air pollution in October.

Diwali: Smog chokes New Delhi despite firework ban

Despite ban, fireworks light up Diwali

On October 9, India's Supreme Court banned the sale of fireworks in New Delhi in a bid to prevent a repeat of 2016's "airpocalypse" that left the city's 20 million residents gasping for days.The only problem: The court didn't ban the use of fireworks, paving the way for a toxic haze the day after.

Diwali: Smog chokes New Delhi despite firework ban

Toxic haze: Morning after Diwali

After Diwali celebrations ended, amounts of tiny particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers, which can reach deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, soared to alarming levels. In parts of New Delhi, air quality readings hit 941, near the maximum measurement of 999. New Delhi, rated the most polluted city in the world in 2014 by the WHO, struggles every winter with toxic pollution.

Diwali: Smog chokes New Delhi despite firework ban

'Breathe nitrate and ammonia'

Environmental activists have called on Indian authorities to declare a public emergency due to the hazardous levels of pollutants in the air. Critics accused India's police of failing to adequately enforce the ban on firecracker sales. "Breathe nitrate and ammonia, homegrown, handmade," said environmentalist Vimlendu Jha.

Diwali: Smog chokes New Delhi despite firework ban

Silver lining?

Despite the harmful levels of pollution hovering over New Delhi after Diwali commemorations, pollution levels were their lowest in three years, according to India's Central Pollution Control Board. Last year, Diwali coincided with crop burning, taking pollution levels to the extreme. "It was going to be hard to beat last year's level in any case," said board scientist Dipankar Saha.

The fireworks would be allowed for a maximum of two hours a day. Online sales have been banned.